Jeff Horn could beat Pacquiao says Funeka

BopxingNews24.com

By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao could lose his next fight against unbeaten Jeff Horn, according to Ali Funeka. He was beaten by the 28-year-old Horn (16-0-1, 11 KOs) by a 6th round knockout last December. Horn was able to use an in and out attacking style to get the better of the 38-year-old Funkeka in dropping him and scoring a 6th round TKO.

Now it’s Pacquiao’s turn. This might be a mistake for Pacquiao to agree to fight Horn. The way Pacquiao looked in his last fight against Jessie Vargas last November, he could have problems with Horn, and he might lose. A win for Horn would make him the new WBO welterweight champion.

Horn doesn’t look good enough to beat the talented fighters in the division like Keith Thurman, Errol Spence Jr., Shawn Porter or Danny Garcia, but he doesn’t need to worry about them. Those fighters aren’t likely going to be bothering with the WBO belt anytime soon.

Pacquiao and Horn will be fighting on April 23 at the Suncorps Stadium in Brisbane, Australia. It’s unclear if this is the final fight of Pacquiao’s contract with Top Rank. If so, it’ll be interesting to see if he re-ups with them again or if he moves on and signs with another promoter. If Pacquiao promotes himself, he could get fights against some of the talented fighters in the division that the U.S boxing fans are interested in.

If Pacquiao stays with Top Rank, there’s the potential that Arum could match him against the likes of Terence Crawford, Vasyl Lomachenko and Konstantin Ponomarev. Those are not fights that will sell a lot of PPV buys in my opinion. I think Pacquiao would be better off fighting guys like Danny Garcia, Keith Thurman or Adrien Broner.

“I am telling you he may upset Pacquiao especially as the Filipino is not the same dynamo he used to be,” said Funeka to fightnews.com. “Pacquiao should leave nothing to chance when preparing for Horn otherwise he will get the shock of his life like I did.”

Horn looks vulnerable when he’s being backed up, because he doesn’t have an inside game and he gets most of his power when he’s coming forward. The problem is Pacquiao would need to apply constant pressure for the full 12 rounds if he doesn’t want to absorb a lot of punishment. Pacquiao could take a beating in this fight if he doesn’t fight smart. Horn is young enough and strong enough to give Pacquiao a lot of problems.

A good young fighter would likely destroy Horn, but Pacquiao doesn’t fit that description. He fights in spurts nowadays. As soon as Pacquiao backs off, Horn is going to come forward and start hitting him with shots. Horn has a good jab that likes to throw a lot. I can see Pacquiao getting hit with that jab frequently, and roughed up by Horn.

It’s a very winnable fight for Pacquiao if he’s able to throw a lot of punches like he used to do. If Pacquiao attacks Horn with his high volume attack, he’ll destroy the Australian. I don’t know if Pacquiao can still throw a lot of punches. He hasn’t show the ability to throw a ton of punches since his fight against Joshua Clottey in 2010.

The really bad thing about Pacquiao fighting a little known fighter like Horn is that it’s going to look really bad if he loses to the guy. Arum reportedly co-promotes Horn, according to ESPN. It would be better for Pacquiao if he at least got beaten by someone that the U.S boxing fans have heard of. I don’t see Horn being able to take Pacquiao’s scalp and then move forward to defeat the top guys in the division like Spence, Thurman or Garcia. I don’t think Horn will ever fight any of those guys. If Horn wins the WBO title, I see him staying in that lane and defending it against guys like Tim Bradley, Terence Crawford, Pacquiao and Jessie Vargas. By the time Horns fights all of those guys, he might not be a relevant fighter any longer.